Fall to Pieces
by Disasteriffic Kaz
Summary: Written for OhSam Triple Play Comment Fic- Searching for salvage at the ruins of Bobby's house, Sam finds the panic room the hard way. Post 7x02 "Hello Cruel World" hurt!Sam awesome!Bobby/Jody
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Fall to Pieces

**Author**: Disasteriffic Kaz

**Info**: Written for OhSam Triple Play Comment Fic- Searching for salvage at the ruins of Bobby's house, Sam finds the panic room the hard way. Post 7x02 "Hello Cruel World" hurt!Sam awesome!Bobby/Jody

**Author's Note**: Prompted by **chaos_slave** for the Triple Play Comment fic at Oh Sam on LJ:  
_1. Bobby's house after it's destroyed  
2. Jody Mills or Bobby  
3. Sam falls through the top of the panic room after it starts to rust and the iron weakens while looking to salvage what they can from Bobby's house._

I know it says 'or' but I opted for both Jody and Bobby. Lol hope you don't mind!

**This story is un-beta'd**. All mistakes are my own.

_**Follow me on Facebook as "Disasteriffic Kaz" for frequent fic updates or just to chat!__**  
**__**~Reviews are Love~**_

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_Every time I'm falling down  
All alone I fall to pieces  
I keep a journal of memories  
I'm feeling lonely, I can't breathe  
I fall to pieces, I'm falling  
Fell to pieces and I'm still falling_

_~Fall to Pieces by Velvet Revolver_

Moonlight shone down on the devastation that had been Bobby Singer's house; outlining the single chunk of the back wall that had once stood against his study, the pipes sticking up into the air like rib bones where the kitchen had been and the three steps of the porch that even now, charred and creaking, held a Winchester as he sat and stared out into the graveyard of cars. Bobby smiled sadly. Some things would never change.

"How you doin', Sam?" Bobby asked and knelt next to the younger man, unwilling to risk his weight on the steps with him. He'd meant to leave Sam back at Rufus' old cabin with his brother but the boy had been determined to come along for this. Dean had waved him out the door happily; his broken leg was not making him easy to live with and the boys had been sniping at each other fit to send Bobby's temper through the roof. Sam's temple still sported the bruise from the pipe that had nearly taken his head off at the hands of a leviathan. Though Sam hadn't had a seizure of any kind in days, he still worried Bobby. Sam's head wasn't the most stable of places before nearly being fractured. "Sam?"

"Yeah, Bobby." Sam's wandering eyes finally rose up to meet Bobby's with a shaky smile. "I'm good. I just…" he turned to look over his shoulder at the wreck of the house and then looked quickly away again. He felt a little cut adrift.

"I know, son." Bobby put a hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. He knew his house was pretty close to the only stable home his boys had ever known; Sam even more than Dean. Dean at least had memories of life before the evil. He shook his head and kept hold of Sam's shoulder while the boy got hold of his emotions. He figured seeing the place like this again had to be cutting Sam up almost as much as it hurt Bobby. It was the last piece of his beloved Karen, gone forever.

"Sorry," Sam said sheepishly and stood. Seeing the burnt ruin again had first brought back the night he'd last been there; searching frantically with the breath-stealing fear that they were too late…that Bobby was dead. Sam's breath clogged in his throat again, this time in relief as Bobby's hand dropped from his shoulder. He turned without thinking and grabbed the man in a fierce hug, ignoring the grunt of surprise from Bobby and then set him back on his feet. Sam smiled, blushing with embarrassment and shrugged. "Sorry, again I mean."

Bobby snorted and shook his head while his heart warmed. "Don't worry about it," he said gruffly. "Come on. Gotta find whatever's left to find and get outta here."

"Bobby!" Jody's voice carried over the wrecked cars and her head popped up over the hood of a long rusted pick-up. "Are you sure I'm looking in the right place?"

"Of course I'm sure, woman!" Bobby rolled his eyes at Sam's amused laugh and headed toward her.

Jody smirked. "Old man, there are too many old wrecks in here. You can't possibly know what's in every one of them and I'm not spending all night digging through this Tetanus bonanza." She dusted her hands on her uniform pants. "Sam! We're gonna need booster shots after this!"

"Why I oughta…" Bobby grumbled and rounded the pickup to glare at her. "Sheriff, you know I got pretty damn good at hidin' bodies out here." In truth, he was grateful for her presence. Sheriff Mills had easily become part of their lives…part of their family before Bobby had even realized it and now he had trouble imagining not having her around. He liked her.

Jody chuckled. "You don't scare me." She smiled up at him, pleased to see some of the haunted look had left his eyes with her teasing and that awesome hug she'd watched Sam give him. It'd made her teary-eyed watching it and knowing just how much they had all gone through and yet, somehow, were still fighting in spite of it.

Sam laughed softly, listening to their good-natured bickering as he rounded the side of the house between it and the garage. It was hard to look at the remains of the place. He had so many memories of a childhood spent there, growing up under Bobby's watchful eye; movies and popcorn fights, games of football in the muddy yard, being hosed down no matter the temperature by Bobby who'd laughed each time he and his brother tried to over-power him and failed. Sam smiled sadly. It had never really struck him until now that this place had been a 'home' for him. He shook his head to try and clear the sad thoughts. Some of the things that had been inside the house were outside now; scattered around it like debris as though whatever they'd used to burn it down had somehow exploded the place from the inside.

"Aww." Sam knelt and picked up an antique volume of witchcraft lore that Bobby had found when Sam was ten. He smiled as he carefully opened its burnt pages and checked the binding. It was salvageable, if he was careful. Sam had spent hours leaned up against Bobby at his desk, learning to read the Latin with Bobby's gruff, kindly voice in his ear.

"Sam?"

Sam stood and waved over at Bobby, rolling his eyes at the concern clear in that call. "I'm fine. Found a book!" He held it up and then turned back to scan the overgrown grass in the moonlight. He had a flashlight he could use but his head still pounded from the beating it had taken and his eyes were still sensitive to light; not that he would admit that to Bobby or Dean. They'd just try to bundle him back into a bed and treat him like an invalid again. It made him feel useless.

"You are useless, Sammy."

Sam flinched as the devil's voice floated in over his shoulder. "Shut up," he whispered.

"What do you think, Sam? Real or, you know, me?" Lucifer strolled into his line of sight, chuckling and pointed at the house. "It's got some real charm like this, don't you think? Very…Escher with a touch of TNT."

"I said…shut up!" Sam snarled it at him and then closed his eyes. He took a breath to calm down. Arguing with the figment in his head wasn't helping. "You're not real."

"Because Dean told you I'm not real. Yep." Lucifer snorted and rolled his eyes when Sam looked at him again. He put his hands up in the air and grinned. "I know. I know. Shut up."

Sam turned away from him and strode toward the garage instead while his hands shook with nerves. He reached for his left palm and the now healing wound there; his personal talisman against Lucifer thanks to his brother. He stepped up on a piece of the roof, singed and warped and froze when it shifted. "Oh…crap. BO…" Sam's shout for help broke off in a gasp as the ground gave out from under him with a painfully loud screech of metal twisting. He fell, trying to catch on to something. His hands slid over rough, iron while something hard gouged up his left side to his shoulder and then he fell. Sam landed hard in a pile of metal; all the breath knocked from him and stared up at the uneven ring of moonlight from above as his vision faded.

Bobby's head whipped up with the sound of Sam's shout, hearing his own name cut off and broke into a run. Somehow, he knew whatever it was, it was going to be bad. He drew the gun at his back as he heard a hollow, crashing sound and rounded the wall of cars to the remains of the house with Jody beside him. "Sam!"

"What the hell was that?" Jody asked and had her own gun out; eyes fearfully checking each shadow in the yard.

"I don't know. Sam? He was just over here." Bobby stalked down the side of the house's foundation and around to where he'd last seen him. "Sam, answer me dammit!" In his head swirled visions of more leviathans showing up, taking or killing Sam right from under his nose. Just as the anger started to form, it blew away in a gust of cold fear as his eyes made out the wide, dark open hole now in the ground. "Oh, God."

"Bobby?" Jody put a hand to his elbow as he started forward.

"I didn't even think…don't be dead," Bobby said it softly like a prayer as he approached the edge of the hole. "Don't you dare be dead, son." He took out his flashlight and flicked it on. "Stay back. Ground could still give way more."

Jody shook her head in refusal and stayed beside him as he leaned over and aimed the light down. She got to her knees to get closer to the edge and get a look and sucked in a horrified breath at the sight below them. Sam lay in a pile of twisted metal on his back, fifteen feet down in what had once been Bobby's panic room. "Sam!"

Bobby grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back when he heard metal squeal beneath them. "Move! Get back!" He didn't want to leave Sam there any more than she did. "We ain't gonna do him no good if we fall down there with him."

Jody let herself be tugged back and stared at the hole, then the house. "Wasn't the entrance in your basement?"

Bobby nodded and ran a hand through his hair under his cap. "There's no way in from the house anymore. I checked already. Not without a damn back-ho to dig it out." He sucked in a steadying breath and thought. "Ok. You…you stay here. See if you can wake him up. Pretty sure there's rope still in the garage and they didn't burn that."

"There's a winch on the front of my squad car." Jodi said firmly and nodded. "Tie the rope to that and we can pull him up. There's…" a loud groan from the hole froze them both and then Jody was on her hands and knees again to get to the edge as Sam started shouting. "Sam!"

Bobby came as close as he dared and felt his heart clench when the sounds began to make sense; Sam was begging. "Ah, hell. Sam? You're alright! You're not…we didn't lock you in!"

"No. No." Sam rolled off the pile of metal and debris; unaware of the blood or the pain as his hazy mind couldn't remember how he'd ended up in the panic room again. All that he could think was that they had locked him in again. "I didn't drink." Sam moaned and pushed back on the floor until his back thumped into the iron wall. He pulled his knees up to his chest and dropped his head to them. "Let me out. Please! Dean!" He never wanted to see the inside of the panic room again. Sam had had enough trouble even looking into it since his last detox and had worked hard to hide that new little phobia from everyone. He was so sure he hadn't drunk demon blood again, not since the horseman but here he was again; trapped so…he must have. He must have fallen off the wagon yet again and was so far into the withdrawal he just couldn't remember. "Sorry! I'm sorry! Please, lemme out!"

"Ah, god." Bobby groaned and felt near to tears at the agonized pleading carrying up to them.

"He must have hit his head," Jody said softly, watching Sam's dim shape in the dark and fought the urge to cry. "He doesn't remember how he got down there." She looked down again and nodded; making a silent decision.

"Jody!" Bobby shouted in fear when she suddenly rolled and swung her legs over the side of the hole. "What the hell you think you're doin'?" he made a grab for her and caught one hand.

"I'm not leaving him down there alone while you try and find a rope." Jody looked up at him fiercely. "I can land safely from here."

"Bull!" Bobby started trying to pull her back out but Jody shook her hand loose and gripped the edge, dangling down into the room.

"Go find the damn rope, Singer!" Jody ordered. She looked down, judging where the pile of debris was. She swung her legs and let go. Her stomach dropped along with her body for the short fall and she hit the ground in a hard roll that knocked the wind from her for a moment but she managed to avoid the pile. She got to her knees and looked up to see Bobby's shadow looming at the edge. "I'm fine! Go already!"

"Damn fool woman. Balls!" Bobby growled and backed away carefully. His heart had been in his throat for the few seconds it had taken her to drop and he'd make sure she heard about it later. "Either gonna strangle that woman or hug her." He snorted, unsure which one would win out at this point as he headed for his garage at a run.

"Sam?" Jody asked cautiously and skirted the pile of rubble. She didn't take out her flashlight, not wanting to risk upsetting him or ruin her night vision until she was sure what state he was in. Bobby had told her enough to know that, on some level at least, Sam was having difficulty sometimes telling reality from the apparent nightmare of memories in his head. He wouldn't give her details and Dean had flat out snarled at her when she'd asked but she knew enough about war vets and PTSD to at least guess at how to handle him. "Sam, it's Jody Mills." She stopped a few feet away and knelt next to him where he sat and trembled; curled in a surprisingly small ball of himself given how extraordinarily large he actually was. He looked like a child all of a sudden; a terrified, confused child and it plucked at that part of Jody she hadn't had the heart to look at for years now. "Sweetie, open your eyes and look at me, ok? Sam."

Sam heard the strange voice and slowly lifted his head. He blinked at Jody from under heavy lashes and the hair that had fallen into his face and he was confused. "Jo…Jody?" Sam stared at her and then around the dark room. He shook his head. "N-no. You…you shouldn' be here. Dangerous."

"No, Sam. I promise." Jody inched closer and stretched a hand out to touch the back of one of his arms. "Look up, ok?"

Sam ducked his face back into his knees instead. "No. Hate….I hate that fan. I can't…I hate it." The hours and hours he had spent in that damnable room with nothing to look at but the slowly spinning fan as it made the carved devil's trap symbols above shift and move in the light…it made him sick. Each time he looked up at the thing, it brought him close to retching and so he'd stopped looking up.

"The fan's gone, sweetie," Jody said softly and curled her fingers softly over his forearm, still leaving him room to pull away and having to swallow a hard swell of emotion when he didn't and seemed to push his arm into her grasp. "It's broken. You landed on it when you fell." The moment the word 'fell' left her mouth, Jody knew it was a mistake when Sam's whole body jerked.

"Fell. I fell!" Sam squeezed himself down even smaller and pulled away from her. He shook his head violently as the memory of throwing himself into the Cage swamped him and with it came that vicious laughter in the back of his mind. "Didn't fall. Jumped. I..."

"No, Sam! No!" Jody threw caution to the wind and lurched forward. She grabbed his shoulders and gave him a hard shake. "Look at me!" She took hold of his head and forced it up, trying not to flinch away when he brought his arms up as though he were going to fight her. "Sam! We're at Bobby's! You were searching the yard and you fell into the panic room. Look around, dammit! Look up. Now!"

Sam's eyes were pulled up against his will and they went wide when he saw the gaping hole above and no hated fan. "Fell?"

"Yes." Jody heaved out a relieved breath and gentled her hands on his head. "Sweetie, you stepped wrong up there and fell down here. Bobby's getting rope and we're gonna get you out, ok? Sam?"

"Get…me out. Out. I'm out." Sam muttered to himself as he looked up at the hole and distantly aware that somehow, he wasn't making a whole lot of sense just then. He slowly dropped his eyes down to look at Jody and frowned. "Jody?"

"Right here, Sam. I'm right here." Jody gave him a small smile and moved closer so she was sitting beside him. She wrapped an arm over his trembling shoulders and pulled. "You hit your head. You're a little confused but we're gonna have you out of here in no time and back to the cabin and Dean, alright?"

Sam felt himself crumple under her comforting touch and slide slowly over to his side until he was half-resting in her lap. "Dean." He closed his eyes and shook with recognition. "S'gotta broken leg. Couldn't come."

"That's right, sweetie." Jody ran a hand over her damp face, pushing away tears and held on to him. "He's gonna kick mine and Bobby's asses when he gets a look at you."

Sam surprised himself and chuckled. "Gets pissed when I get hurt." He scowled. "Not a kid."

"You're _his_ kid," Jody said affectionately and with another sad smile. "Or close enough." She ran a hand over the back of his head and felt blood-wet hair. She sighed. "Where do you hurt, Sam? Can you tell me? Other than your head."

"Hurt?" Sam asked in a daze and then tried to think about it. He raised his left arm and pain suddenly flared bright and real through his body. He groaned. "Oh…ok, ow. Left…left side. Damn, that…that hurts."

"Shh, now. Ok. Breathe for me, Sam." Jody urged as his once slowly calming breathing started to become ragged again. She quickly fished her flashlight out of her pocket. "Keep your eyes closed. I'm gonna turn a light on."

Sam nodded and, even through his closed eyes, the glare of the flashlight hurt after having only dim moonlight to see by. He sucked in a pained breath when Jody tugged at his shirts, pulling them up and out of the way.

"Sorry. Sorry." Jody said softly and shone the light down; trying not to panic at the sight of all that blood. His jacket and shirts were sodden with it where something had obviously pushed hard into his flesh on the way down. "Oh…ok. It's not that bad."

Sam snorted softly. "Lying to me?"

"I'm a cop. I don't lie." Jody managed a smirk when Sam turned his head to peer up at her. "Ok, I do but not at the moment. It's not as bad as it looks." It wasn't really. He'd bled all over the place but the bleeding was already slowing and she could see it was just a deep scrape. It was going to be painful as hell when he moved and when they had to get him up and out. She carefully lowered his shirts back down and flicked the light off again. "You're gonna be fine but me and Bobby…"

"Salted and burned by Dean?" Sam asked and gave a small, breathless laugh. "Yeah, prob…probably." He closed his eyes again. "Jody, I'm sorry about…I kinda…freaked out a little. Sorry." The fear, confusion and pain was starting to give way to humiliation over just how badly he'd lost it before and after he fell through the ground.

"Sam, don't apologize." Jody laid a hand in his hair and leaned into to him to offer what warmth she could. "Got nothing to be sorry for, sweetie."

Sam, in a show of trust, let his head rest on her arm wearily. "Just…never liked this damn room much."

Jody saw that for the understatement it was and nodded. "Well, who would? It's an ugly room, decorated back during the cold war and what is that smell?"

Sam snorted a laugh that made his side twitch in pain but he smiled. "Bobby's whiskey. Think…think there must have been a box down here."

"Well no wonder that man's got the breath of a hibernating grizzly then." Jody said with a laugh.

"You mockin' my decoratin' sense and my breath, I can leave ya both down there!"

Bobby's yell from above made them both laugh and Jody looked up to see his shadow against the moonlight again. "Oh, stop grouching and throw down the rope already!"

"He alright? Sam?" Bobby watched them both and smiled when Sam's face turned up in the moonlight and he waved at him. "Hang on, son." He went back and tested the rope to be sure it was tied securely to the winch on Jody's police cruiser and then tossed it down into the panic room. It took ten minutes to get Sam up and the poor kid moaned all the way. Bobby's eyes widened fearfully when he got his first look at him in the headlights of the car and saw the blood. "Balls!"

"M'ok," Sam said breathlessly as Bobby pulled him up and away from the hole until he was sitting against the bumper of the car. "Not…not that bad." He wrapped his arm over his left side and tried for a smile. "Just hurts."

Bobby ran a hand under his ballcap and groaned. "Dean's gonna kill me."

"I'm gonna kill you if you don't pull me up!" Jody shouted from down in the panic room.

Bobby chuckled and untied the rope from under Sam's arms. "Stay put, Sam." He patted Sam's shoulder and then just held on for a minute, a little weak-kneed with relief to have him out and alright…more or less.

"I'm really ok, Bobby," Sam said softly and gripped his wrist as he smiled. "Better…better get Jody out before she hurts you."

"Good idea." Bobby snorted and turned to slap the winch back on and toss the unspooling rope back down. "Don't get yer panties in a knot, Sheriff."

"Bobby Singer, by the time I get done with you, Dean won't have to bury your grumpy old ass!" Jody yelled and jumped to grab the rope as it lowered down to her. She grinned up when he leaned over to look at her.

Sam listened to them bicker warmly with each other and thought, it'd be nice if Bobby ever got his head out of his ass long enough to realize he liked her. He smirked, adjusting his arm over his side and then froze like a deer in headlights as he looked up and saw Lucifer smiling at him from the other side of the hole. Sam slammed his eyes closed and pressed his elbow painfully into his side. The pain drove through him in a hot wave and when he opened his eyes again, the devil was gone. He let out a long, stuttered breath. "I'm out," he whispered to himself. "No more falling."

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_To Be Continued... _

_By popular demand, a second chapter and Dean will be coming soon. LOL _


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** Fall to Pieces

**Author**: Disasteriffic Kaz

**Info**: Written for OhSam Triple Play Comment Fic- Searching for salvage at the ruins of Bobby's house, Sam finds the panic room the hard way. Post 7x02 "Hello Cruel World" hurt!Sam awesome!Bobby/Jody

**Author's Note**: I didn't tack this on the end of the first chapter because it was a prompt fill that didn't call for Dean's involvement. LOL But I knew I'd be coming back to add it in later so here you are! A little short of course but Dean...caring for Sam. Dawwwww. :P

**Beta'd by the Always Awesome JaniceC678** - Friend and Muse's co-conspirator

_**Follow me on Facebook as "Disasteriffic Kaz" for frequent fic updates or just to chat!__**  
**__**~Reviews are Love~**_

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_Bobby chuckled and untied the rope from under Sam's arms. "Stay put, Sam." He patted Sam's shoulder and then just held on for a minute, a little weak-kneed with relief to have him out and alright…more or less._

_"I'm really ok, Bobby," Sam said softly and gripped his wrist as he smiled. "Better…better get Jody out before she hurts you."_

_"Good idea." Bobby snorted and turned to slap the winch back on and toss the unspooling rope back down. "Don't get yer panties in a knot, Sheriff."_

_"Bobby Singer, by the time I get done with you, Dean won't have to bury your grumpy old ass!" Jody yelled and jumped to grab the rope as it lowered down to her. She grinned up when he leaned over to look at her._

_Sam listened to them bicker warmly with each other and thought, it'd be nice if Bobby ever got his head out of his ass long enough to realize he liked her. He smirked, adjusting his arm over his side and then froze like a deer in headlights as he looked up and saw Lucifer smiling at him from the other side of the hole. Sam slammed his eyes closed and pressed his elbow painfully into his side. The pain drove through him in a hot wave and when he opened his eyes again, the devil was gone. He let out a long, stuttered breath. "I'm out," he whispered to himself. "No more falling."_

**Chapter 2**

Sam sat in the cab of Bobby's truck and tried not to groan out his pain each time they went over a bump in the road. Jody had left them at the salvage yard to head back to town and, Sam thought with a smirk, to avoid the diatribe no doubt coming from his brother. He closed his eyes as they banged over yet another pothole. At least this time he knew it wouldn't be aimed at him, though he'd do his best to get Bobby off the hook.

"Almost there, son," Bobby said softly, glancing over at Sam's pale face and blood-stained shirts in the light from the dash.

Sam rolled his eyes and then thought better of it when pain crashed through his head. "Stop…stop staring, Bobby. I'm ok."

"Uh huh," Bobby watched Sam's eyes slam closed and his head roll back onto the seat. "I can see that. Any chance you look less like a bar fight loser before we pull up?"

"Nope," Sam said with a soft snort of laughter. "Just…just try to duck or something until he calms down."

"Easy for you to say." Bobby rolled his eyes and parked in front of the cabin. He took a deep breath and got out. "Here we go."

Dean heard Bobby's truck rumble up outside and let out a long, tense breath he felt like he'd been holding since they'd left. He'd enjoyed the peace and quiet when they'd left for about ten whole minutes before concern for his little brother had kicked back in. He still woke up to nightmares of lying helpless beside Sam in the salvage yard and watching him seize, and those were bad enough; but the ones that truly left the bitter taste of fear in his mouth were when he dreamt of Sam in that warehouse. Dean knew how close Sam had come to eating his own gun that night, and it was terrifying. He knew with absolute certainty, if he'd arrived just a few minutes later, he'd have been kneeling over his brother's lifeless body rather than trying to talk him off the ledge, and he was pretty certain they both were out of get-out-of-death-free cards .

He listened to the rumble of Bobby's voice as they came up the steps and frowned because it sounded like…like he was working too hard to keep his voice down and sound calm, and that only happened when someone was hurt.

Dean levered himself up off the couch, swinging his casted leg to the floor and was standing when the door opened. His eyes blew wide in shock when Bobby came in with Sam pasted to his side. "What the hell happened?" Dean demanded loudly as he took in his clearly wounded little brother and the frightening amount of blood he could see, not to mention Sam's slightly glazed eyes that rose up to meet his.

"Not Bobby's fault." Sam told Dean quickly.

Dean continued to stare and the shock finally wore off when he realized what was about to happen. He knew his brother too well. "Bobby, sit him down quick. Here. Come on." He moved so there was room for Sam to get to the couch. "He's gonna pass out!"

"Balls," Bobby groaned. He gave Sam a shove toward the couch and grunted as all of the boy's considerable weight suddenly hung from his shoulder as his legs went out. "How'd you know?" Dean gave him a disgusted face and took hold of Sam's left arm, helping to lower him to the couch. "Right. Right." Bobby rolled his eyes fondly. "Kid can't sneeze without you knowin' about it first. He's fine, Dean."

"He doesn't look fine." Dean growled and sat next to his brother on his left. "'Fine' does not usually include three layers of shirts soaked with blood. What happened?"

"Back of his head's bleedin' too." Bobby informed him and ducked into the kitchen for the first aid kit. "He found the panic room."

Dean scowled over the back of the couch at him. "And?"

"The hard way." Bobby stopped and ran a hand over his face. "He, uh…he fell through the top." He blew out a shaky breath. "'Bout scared me to death when he just disappeared 'til I realized what had happened."

Dean had to swallow around the lump in his throat as he gently turned Sam's head away from him to get a look at the back of it. He appeared calm on the outside, but inside, his mind was screaming with the memory of Sam falling into a dark hole in the ground…into the Cage. He didn't need to have been there to imagine what it had looked like when his brother had fallen again and it made his hands shake. If he lived to be ninety, he would still remember the gut-wrenching, debilitating sense of loss that had come with watching…letting…Sam fall into that hole.

"He, uh…he freaked out a little when he woke up," Bobby said quietly and sat on the coffee table, spreading out the first-aid kit. "Pretty sure he's got himself a bit of a phobia for that room."

"Gee, Bobby. Ya' think?" Dean said angrily and then took a breath to calm himself. "Sorry. Gimme something to clean this blood so I can see."

Bobby handed him a wet towel and leaned in to pull Sam's shirts up while Dean worked at the back of his head. "Jody sat with him 'til I could get him out. Kept him from crackin' up too bad down there." He grimaced again as he looked at the long, angry scrape up Sam's left side. "Dean, I'm sorry. I should have been watchin'."

Dean nodded but again said nothing, not trusting himself just then. It wasn't Bobby he was angry with; it was himself. He should have been there, busted leg or not, or he just shouldn't have damn well let Sam go in the first place. Sam's head was still bruised from the hard knock he'd taken from the leviathan, and it stared at Dean like an accusation of failure. "This is…it's not too bad," he said softly as he cleared enough blood away and pulled Sam's hair to the side to get a good look at the cut. "Won't even need stitches." He pressed the towel into the cut on the back of his head and rolled it so Sam's head held the towel in place on the back of the couch. Dean turned his attention down to his brother's chest and hissed out a breath. "Shit."

"Think he scraped past part of the ceiling fan on his way down." Bobby picked up the antiseptic and wasn't surprised when Dean pulled it out of his hands. "It's what he landed on anyway. He's lucky. If he'd landed badly, could'a broke his damn back."

Dean snorted. "Lucky. Yeah, right." He looked up at Sam's lax face and figured he'd have an armful of confused brother in a second. He tipped the antiseptic over the bloody wound and sure enough, Sam jerked awake with a shout. "Take it easy. Hang on!" Dean gave the bottle to Bobby and grabbed Sam's shoulders, stopping his tumble off the couch to the floor.

"Shit!" Sam gasped and groaned when he tried to curl over his side but was stopped by Dean's hands on his shoulders.

"Easy, buddy." Dean pushed him to lay back against the couch and held on until Sam's eyes rose up to meet his. He needed to know that Sam was actually with him and not lost in his head somewhere. "Sammy?"

Sam nodded and closed his eyes. "Sorry. Yeah. I'm ok." He moaned softly and reached for his head, only to have his hand knocked away.

"Yeah, found that. Don't play with it." Dean told him firmly and took the antiseptic bottle back. "We got enough bandages to cover this Bobby?"

"Should have." Bobby nodded and worked to hide the smile. It warmed his heart to see Dean caring for his brother and to see Sam…well, aware of it. "Probably oughta shower first."

"Yeah. Who knows what he picked up down there? Dean smirked at Bobby and looked at Sam. "You think you can stand up long enough to shower before I patch this up?"

Sam looked down at the long, open wound and groaned. "M'good here." He didn't want to get in the shower and add the all-too-familiar agony of warm water running over the wounds. His head was swimming and pounding from the knock he'd taken, and he wondered if some of it was left over from the earlier head injury. He startled and snapped his eyes open when he felt a hand on his face and found Dean staring at him from inches away.

"Not fillin' me with confidence here, Sammy," Dean told him soberly. Sam had seemed to drift off with no warning and his eyes looked a little glazed again. "Yeah, ok. Shower later." He looked over at Bobby with a smirk. "Unless you wanna take him in and hold him up."

"Wise-ass," Bobby growled affectionately and held out a bandage to him. "How's your leg feelin'?"

"Better than his head, apparently." Dean groused and started the job of covering the long wounds on his brother's side while Sam sat disturbingly still through all of it. Dean flicked his eyes up to Sam's face as he worked and didn't like that he was getting paler by the minute. "Bobby."

"On it." Bobby didn't need to be told as he rose and went quickly to the kitchen to hunt down the medication they'd swiped for Sam after their hospital escape. A doctor friend of Bobby's had told them what to get to help with Sam's pain without making the injury itself worse.

"Almost done, Sam." Dean told his brother though he wasn't sure Sam was even registering much at that point. He taped the last bandage in place and then turned, sitting a little awkwardly so he could pull Sam up against his shoulder. "Help me get his jacket and these shirts off?"

"Mmm," Sam groaned softly into Dean's neck and tried to say he could do it himself but his mouth didn't seem to want to form the words.

"Balls," Bobby said with feeling. He leaned over the back of the couch and carefully pulled Sam's jacket down his unresisting arms and off. "Little too quiet."

"Yeah, I know," Dean said worriedly. He propped Sam's left arm up over his shoulder while Bobby grabbed the other and together they worked his shirts off in one, blood-stiffening mass. Dean eased him back to the couch again and sighed. "Sammy?" He rolled his brother's face toward him and waited for hazel to blink sluggishly open. "Gotta take your meds, dude, ok?"

Bobby handed Dean a bottle of water and then the two pills. "He was more alert in the truck, Dean."

Dean shook his head. "Think he just ran out of gas with the pain. Sam? Open up. You remember this."

Sam frowned and opened his mouth with vague memories of many other times recently Dean had seemed to be coaching him to open his mouth and swallow pills. It irritated him, but they always made the pain go away and he couldn't remember just at that moment why his head hurt so much. "D'n?"

"Right here, buddy." Dean popped the pills into his mouth and tipped the water in after them, relieved when Sam swallowed reflexively. He set the bottle aside and settled down next to him.

"I'll get him to bed." Bobby said but Dean waved him off.

"He's fine here right now. Wanna keep an eye on him." Dean didn't want Sam out of his sight again until he was sure he was going to be alright and not have another seizure. He wasn't sure his nerves could survive that again. "I'll watch him here."

"Dean, he oughta lay down."

"He's fine here, Bobby," Dean repeated in a tone that clearly conveyed this was the end of the discussion. He reached down and propped his cast up on the coffee table. He smirked and rolled his eyes when Sam leaned into him sleepily until his head was on Dean's shoulder. "Friggin' princess." Dean muttered but made no effort to push him off. Given what had happened earlier and the nightmares Sam was no doubt going to be having all over again, Dean couldn't deny him the comfort if he wanted it.

"You girls gonna be alright if I go take a shower?" Bobby smirked down at the dirty look Dean gave him.

"Shut up. We're fine."

Bobby nodded and walked away into the back of the cabin before Dean could see the fond smile on his face and start hurling insults.

Dean's face flushed a little, but he moved his arm over Sam's shoulders and turned so he was propped in the corner of the couch with Sam against his chest. It felt like they were kids again, and he took a small measure of comfort for himself out of it for once, having Sam warm and alive and there…more or less… and if Bobby or Sam decided to try and call him on cuddling later, he'd just blame his broken leg on his inability to get out from under the damn sasquatch. He tightened his arm over Sam's shoulders when he started to shift restlessly, smiling when Sam stilled instantly and relaxed.

"No more falling into dark holes I can't get you out of, Sammy," Dean said softly to the top of his brother's head and leaned his own back on the couch, finally, in relief. "No more falling."

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_The End…really. :P_


End file.
